Shopping is a complex, social, and collaborative activity. Buying impulses may occur at any location and at any time. Consumers may not always have access to means for capturing the impulses when they occur. For example, consumers may not always have a pen and paper ready to jot down the items they intend to purchase. Buying impulses may comprise items consumers definitely want to purchase, items consumers may consider purchasing, or items consumers may want to research before purchasing. Consumers typically create multiple shopping lists and reminders (e.g., a shopping list posted on the refrigerator door, an email reminder, or lists on scraps of paper, etc.) to keep track of purchase intent. In order for the lists to be helpful, consumers have to remember to take the lists along on each relevant shopping trip.
Retail stores may keep record of items purchased by consumers. However, the stores generally have no way of knowing the items that the consumers intend to purchase. Consumer purchase intent information may be useful for stores to more effectively adjust inventory based on trends of most wanted products and personalize recommendations to each consumer, thereby increasing profitability to the stores.
Thus, a market exists for a method to efficiently capture and utilize consumer purchase intent information.